How do you actually make money with Rental properties?!

[Jesse Flores]

So, I'm not looking to get rich, or anything crazy, I just want to make a comfortable living, make passive income off of real state rental properties,  I know it will take a long time and patience. I'm not looking to own a ton of properties neither. 

Here is the question, might be super basic though sorry, I looked around and couldn't find an answer.  

HOW do you make actually money off of rental properties? Say you are starting out... you buy an apartment for $25k, plus monthly maintenance. You rent it out for about $450/month, and like, your actual monthly returns are...  like... say $250 right, so how does this make money? It would take like 20 years for the unit to pay itself off and start making you some cash flow.  No? so what I'm trying to understand here is...

Whats the basic concept of making money this way? I would like to make $5000/ month on passive income with rental properties, but I would like to see that return in no more than 5-10 years, how do you actually do this? 

Thank you all for reading, any future wisdom provided, much appreciated.

[Bryan Hancock]

4 ways:

1.  Cash flow

2.  Principal repayment through loan amortization

3.  Appreciation

4.  Tax shelter of income

I really haven't ever met a real estate investor that regretted buying too many properties.  If you're patient items 1-4 above will slowly make you rich.  The cumulative effect of owning property adds up over time.  The property works for you 24 X 7; 365.

If you couple this with a discount purchase and/or force some appreciation through improvements you can couple these strategies with owning property long-term.  I have developed 54 projects over the last 6 years that have made millions for we and our investors.  That money is all rocket fuel that can be used to buy more property and get the projects working for us day in and day out.  

I would suggest you start with a copy of @Frank Gallinelli's book you can purchase on Amazon:

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures

Investing some time on The Mortgage Professor's site:

Mortgage Professor

will also teach you about loan types for residential properties.  Ray Alcorn's Dealmaker's Guide To Commercial Real Estate is the best book I have found for commercial properties if you head in that direction.  

Start small, learn the game, and get those properties working to make you wealthy.  My only regret over the last 15 years of investing is not purchasing more buy-and-hold properties.